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ALEXIS
A YEAR LATER
“Okay I’m done with you now. Will you come out of that room, woman?” I heard Jayden’s voice from the sitting room and scoffed. I hadn’t even taken that long, he was just being dramatic.
Women dressed up for their men, but this man? He preferred me naked because of his lack of patience to see me actually dressed up. He was the one who bought me the dress, but he wouldn’t even let me wear it, so why buy it?
I looked at the said dress again. It was a black spaghetti strap knee-length dress that I had rejected the first time he showed me because of my scar. He wasn’t having any of it though and told me to wear it because I was beautiful with or without my scar.Sappy shit.
He had attempted to change my wardrobe and add somecolorsto it, but later accepted to ‘take it slow’ since I wasn’t comfortable with wearing anything other than black yet.
So here I was, in front of the mirror, staring at my dress and taking a peep at my scar which was now fully healed, but still had a visible straight line.
The first month I had decided to never cut myself again, the doctor had said the scar was infected, and had stitched it back after the treatment.
“Our flight is in an hour, baby. What are you doing?” His voice got closer and I turned to see him leaning against the door, legs crossed and hands folded to his chest.
We were moving to Florida, because according to Jayden,‘this place is not good for the kids,’and I agreed because why not? Even Ariana and Kendal wanted to go, because when he promised them that the house would have a game room and a cinema, they immediately jumped at the idea to move.
Ariana and Kendal were very close to Jayden and they even taught him sign language sometimes, which he wasvery slowin learning, but he could understand if Kendal signed slowly to him.
It warmed my heart whenever I saw the three of them together, laughing and making jokes. I never thought I would get to see that.
I was about to reply when Kendal and Ariana knocked on the opened door and walked in. “Are we leaving or not?” Ari said, sitting on my bed and I rolled my eyes at all of them.
“If you all get me mad, I’ll undress and sleep.” I threatened. Ariana widened her eyes and faced Jayden, her hands on her hips.
“Jay, don’t get her mad.”
“Me? I didn’t even do anything,” he protested.
“I know, it’s just easier to blame you.”
He and Kendal laughed, shaking their heads. Jayden suddenly squinted his eyes at me, “Flower, did you apply makeup on your face?” He asked, and Kendal and Ariana focused on me. Butterflies played in my stomach and I immediately got uncomfortable under the three pairs of eyes as I played with the hem of the gown I was wearing.
“No… no it was just lip gloss, I saw it and thought it would look good on me,” I stuttered, fondling my fingers. I remembered buying it because I wanted tofeel like a girl. It was a stupid idea.
“It does look good on you. Right guys?” Jayden complimented and urged the kids.
Kendal nodded with a smile on his lips and signed,‘It looks really good.’
“It does look good. Makes you look like a nice person,” said Ariana.
“Hey, don’t bully my girl, sheisa nice person,” Jayden glared at Ariana and she raised her hand in submission.
I cleared my throat and faced the table, arranging my hair. “Alright, all of you get out. I need to pack up.”
“What a nice person,” Ariana muttered and Kendal chuckled.
“I packed for you, baby. I knew you were going to take so long to dress up.”
I glared at him. “I didn’t even take that long, you’re just being unnecessarily dramatic.”
Jayden faced Kendal and Ariana. “Guys. please give us a minute.”
Ariana got down from the bed and shook her head. “Ew, I don’t know why I heard something else.” She strode out and Kendal laughed again, face palming himself.
“You are fourteen, Ariana,” I called after her before glaring at Jayden. “Am I letting them spend too much time with you?”